What makes a COB crusty?

[Pepper The Cat]

Here are

some reasons why us Crusty Old Bats are Crusty! COB jump in

1. Back in the "old days" we were respected. If we said " visiting hour are over, you need to leave." Families left. Now, they stay anyway.

2. Back in the old days, the families said "doctors/nurses know best. Now it's "well I saw on Dr Oz /Oprah/whatever that this should be done. And if Dr Oz/Oprah says it is so, it must be.

Or

3. I read in the Internets that the doctor should go into the parking lot, find a red Mazda, walk around it three time counter-clockwise while saying "stroke go away" and Mom will be cured. Did the Doctor do this? Why not? Will they?

4. Back in the old days, student were not asked if they "wanted to do a cath". We were told, Mr Brown needs a cath, you will do it.

5. Back in the old days we didn't have special apps to figure out everything for us. We had to learn it, remember it and keep it in our brain.

6. Back in the old days we wrote a 2 days exam for our license and then waited 2 months for results. There was no PVT, no 75 questions, etc.

My fellow COB, what makes you crusty?

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

Having potassium, heparin and insulin vials sitting on top of the med cart because management trusted us to use our brain.I remember mixing my own potassium to make an IV bag, and adding insulin to the TPN.1) I rarely panic.2) All bleeding eventually stops. 3) See #1

Amen and amen.

I feel badly when I have to bug pharm for something I could easily do myself. And then I get annoyed that I have to spend fifteen minutes coordinating the administration of one medication that I used to be able to do in three.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I'm curious...to the COB out there; when you had 10+ patients were you able to do hourly rounding? Because I can't imagine; my max is 5 patients and that can be hard at times.

The charting requirements were about 1/3 of what they are now!!!

But no hourly rounding. I had 15 patients. I'd start on one end of the unit passing meds while the aid did VS and "S & A"s. (Dipsticking urine, in the days before glucometers.) It took two hours to do the first med pass and vital signs, along with cleaning up any messes we found and the occaisional (rare) backtracking to answer a call light. Then you had an hour for baths, dressings, whatever before the next med pass and vital signs started.

Patients were different then, as were visitors. There was none of this "thumb spasm" business where someone puts on the call light repeatedly to ask for chairs and snacks for his 27 visitors. Visitors left the unit to get their own danged snacks, and the patients were more . . . well, PATIENT. Everyone was more respectful of the nurse.

[RNIBCLC]

Think text messages :) Future generations will look back on our little cell phones with the same giggles as the 20-somethings do now when they see pictures of the FIRST cell phones, LOL. I had a "portable, cordless cell" that was also called a "bag phone"; it was the size of a shoebox and came in its own briefcase! Yes, shoulderstrap and all, I had me a cell phone back then

Wow...people must have thought you were important with that early phone...my doctor had one. Circa 1970's right?

[SeattleJess]

Well.....I don't have the same nursing years under my belt, but I factor in previous career and I'm pretty DANGED crusy, LOL.

So what makes the crusty stuff grow on me? Hearing "I don't have to do that, I've already been checked off on that skill" from a student. EXCUSE ME?? You're assigned to a nurse who is giving you the opportunity to do something you NEED to learn how to do, and your answer is "I don't HAVE to"? Crust...forming....creeping....top layer....

I can use my previous career for my nursing crust? Woot, woot! I feel a deep dish crust coming on!

:clpty:

[Anna S, RN]

.......It's not that science, knowledge, and expertise has increased all that much, it's that there are many more barriers to the actual delivery of care.

That's it- you said it.

And BTW- I had to wait four months for my NCLEX results.

I purchased a Graduate Nurse Temp License to cover me so I could work while waiting for my board results. Most nurses did.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Batty? check! Old? Well, getting there. Crusty? Getting more so by the year! What gets me is all the so-called time saving, streamlining measures that actually take twice as long as the old fashioned way. I would dearly love to know where these studies that show how many nursing hours are saved by using XYZ software were performed.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Thought of another one. Nurses expected and actually got yearly raises. There were also more of us! News flash...there is indeed a nursing shortage, just not the way it is portrayed. There are tons of nurses looking for work, just not as much hiring as it is easier [read cheaper] to do more work with less staff.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

What makes me crusty is the look of horror my younger co-workers get on their faces when I change a barely wet, disposable diaper with my *gasp bare hands! (which i promptly wash) I feel sick children need to be touched my warm, real human hands.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Moved to AN's Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations forum.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Wow...people must have thought you were important with that early phone...my doctor had one. Circa 1970's right?

OUCH! and LOL.....try 1990 :) Motorola made a spiffy one, too expensive, but MINE! And important? Nah...just got it from my SIL, who WAS important, LOL! But maybe I looked that way. I tell ya, the thing was stupid huge!

Before that, it was "car phones" which were really just bag phones before the bag

[eagle78]

Thought of another one. Nurses expected and actually got yearly raises. There were also more of us! News flash...there is indeed a nursing shortage, just not the way it is portrayed. There are tons of nurses looking for work, just not as much hiring as it is easier [read cheaper] to do more work with less staff.

Hmm, is that the "cost of living raise" us non-nurses used to get??

I am not a nurse, but I will say I have enough crust in me to be a COB. Crusty old bats are in every field!!!

[Cobweb]

Things that made me crusty:

I used to spend 75 percent of my time with patients and 25 percent charting. Now I spend 75 percent of my time on the computer and 25 percent of my time with patients.

We used to keep patients in the hospital until they were well. They went home and they stayed there. Now, I feel that "revolving door" is exactly the right phrase. They go in and out, in and out, poor things.

An addendum to that is that we did not let patients leave until they showed evidence of waste excretion. Now I am in a rehab facility, and I can't tell you how many patients we have gotten that have a note saying, "No BM in the last 8 days," or "unable to void."

Also, the somewhat new corporate habit of telling nurses to go home if the census is low. I can't think of one other group of college-educated professionals who get treated like day laborers. (Not that I think that day laborers should be treated like day laborers, but that's a whole other gripe session). Do they call in extra people if the census and acuity level is high? No, they do not. I feel that if you endure the extra-horrid days, you should also get to enjoy the easy days.